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MATERIA ET OPUS 

Concerning Elegance in Stationery 



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I I 1 



By 
THEO. TRACY 




COPYRIGHTED 1900 BY THE 

Whiting Paper Company 

NBW YORK PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO 




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APR •^1900 

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PUBLISHED FOR THE TRADE BY THE WHITING PAPER 
COMPANY, MANUFACTURERS OF THE FAMOUS WHITING 
PAPERS FOR FINE CORRESPONDENCE, WEDDING INVITA- 
TIONS, AND HIGH-GRADE OFFICE STATIONERY, ETC., ETC. 



56784 




IF YOU WISH ANOTHER COPY OF THIS BOOK FOR A FRIEND 
YOU CAN GET IT FREE OF CHARGE AT YOUR STATIONERS 



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The 

Intimate 

Relation 

of 

Stationery 

to 

Personality 



THE paper on which we communicate our thoughts is as 
strong in its relief-like relation to those thoughts, as is 
a background of Titian, or Rubens, or Van Dyke to the 
portrait it has helped make so marvelously vital. It was, 
indeed, because these great artists were such masters of 
character-expression through color— because their genuis 
responded so harmoniously to the nature-themes they were to 
show in color-tones, that they most profoundly felt the in- 
timate relation of the background to the picture. 

It is a lesson Polite Society learned so long ago that it 
may be considered almost an innate quality— that the writing 
papers with which one's escritoire is supplied, must be as 
carefully toned to the messages to be sent out on them, as is 
the delicate film of the photographer's plate to the image it is 
to receive. 



One of the most interesting albums I know, is filled with Byway 
gracefully arranged autograph letters from celebrities to a of 
distinguished literateur. There are letters from Gladstone, Illustration 
Tennyson, Sir Philip Stanhope, the Bishop of London, Prince 
Bismarck, Emilio Castelar, Rubenstein, Emile Zola, Carmen 
Sylva, Madame Carnot; from Liszt, from Guy de Maupas- 
sant, from Salvini the elder, and from "La Bernhardt." 
The papers on which these letters are written, each singular- 
ly elegant in its adaptability, are as different as the chirogra- 
phics which join in making them precious. Open the book— 
for example— at this sheet of rich "gris perle" not too heavy, 
and not too smooth, but exceeding sumptuous to the touch. 
It is edged with a much deeper shade of the same dainty 
color, and bears an artistic devise of asps and tragic masque. 
Does not everything about this paper suggest the writer with- 
out even glancing at the "Sarah Bernhardt" so gracefully 
signed in upward, flowing hand? Here is another letter- 
sheet — a light weight of snow-white parchment, suggestive 
of elegant strength and culture. It is Salvini's name it 
bears — clear-cut and finely shaded as if on cameo. Turn 
the pages again, please, and stop at this handsome, creamy, 
satin-smooth leaf — singularly symmetric in form — with Emilio 
Castelar's name below. Just one more and a very precious 



The 

Power of 
Paper in 
Correspond- 
ence 



gem indeed, from this rare treasury — the plain, massively- 
rich, stately sheet that with large spaces between the lines 
of fine, firm writing, bears the name of Napoleon. 



To leave our album, and to come to our own actualities;— 
Have you ever stopped to think what power for attraction or 
repulsion there lies in a sheet of writing paper? Perhaps not, 
as far as the literal analysis of the sensation caused by the 
airy scrap of material goes. But is there even one among my 
cultured readers who does not exceedingly enjoy the rich, 
luxurious "feel" of the burnished, cream-tinted, impos- 
ingly-substantial sheets her writing desk contains? — and ad- 
mire the gossamer texture, the lawn-like surface, and the ex- 
quisite finish of other sheets lying beside these first-ready for 
other moments and other sending? What a satisfaction to 
lift a folio of thick "antique parchment" from its own com- 
partment, and what a pleasure to sense the delicate thinness 
of the artistically perfect "bond" of which she may convenient- 
ly send as many pages as she will to those with whom she 
would hold interchange of thoughts, though leagues upon 
leagues of land and sea lie between? It is but natural that the 
writer should have a consciousness ot the pleasant compli- 
ment implied in the sendingof messages penned on such taste- 
ful foundation, though it may seem so exactly part of what 
should be that she accepts the sentiment without defining it? 
It is just herein that the true secret of proper paper selection 
lies — for it is the ''•what should be' that the refined taste of a 
lady's stationery demands — and, as our ladies' taste indicates 
the trend of every culture-current, that is the criterion for 
every refined taste. Let her who has received the sheets 
which the innate understanding of fitness has sent, find others 
awaiting her — rough, smirched with spreading ink, out of size 
and out of tint — sans grace, sans tone, sans everything 
delicate; — repugnance is telegraphed through every fibre of 
her sensitive nature, indisposing her to accept the message in 
good will or even to give it passing heed, unless it be preceded 
by apology, which is the very poorest initiator of satisfaction 
and augurs ill indeed for the desired end. Does it seem much 




3 




A Soldier's 
Missive 





to say? It is nevertheless true, that on the adaptability of 
the paper on which momentous ideas are communicated, and 
intimate thoughts are expressed, depends many and many a 
time the making or the marring of friendships, of fortunes and 
of futures. 



This — from the time when the Egyptian magnates inscribed Historic 
their hieroglyphs on the Nile papyrus whose secret the sage Maiginalia 
of Memphis taught them, until now. How lack of uniformity 
in the size of these papyrus leaves must have jarred upon 
their despotic, luxury-loving dictators! Nature and not they, 
controlled the Nile plant's growth, and as she had decreed 
that the size of every papyrus sheath — and so of every leaf, 
— be different, their will was as nothing to her edict. That 
epicurian lover of Art, the Roman Emperor Hadrian, with 
passion for elegance surpassing any of his peers — gathered a 
wonderfully rich store of the writing material of his epoch, 
and raised it to high dignity in his magnificent Tivolian villa. 
It is Hadrian too, who has left us the most enthusiastic de- 
scription of the high art paper-making and attained in Alex- 
andria when he and his splendid following visited that opulent 
city. Pliny — master historian of his great, historic age, 
wrote much of the power of these "transcription sheets" in 
the years that preceded his own epoch. The Evangel of St. 
Ivlark, esteemed beyond price in the jewel-like temple on the 
Riva of the Grand Canal, was inscribed on a heavy, vellum-like 
paper, that, from point of progress, makes it infinitely more 
interesting than even the parchment sheets of the Apocrypha, 
so carefully guarded by brown-robed monks in the unrivalled 
scientific and theologic book and manuscript collection of the 
old Roman Cardinal's Palace. Centuries on centuries ago, 
China, Japan, the whole Levant, recognized the vital power 
of paper, almost with awe. Perhaps it was the deep super- 
stition which attended that stage of civilization that was a 
chief obstacle to its development then. All students of 
Eastern lore, know of the strange, Brahmin manuscript which 
was inscribed on great palm leaves; and all earnest inquirers 
into the pedigree of paper have learned of the Indian plant 



Paper as a 
Measure of 
Progress 



that yields a curious membrane, firm and white and small as 
the satin skin that lines an egg-shell, which long served the 
purpose of paper. 



"The measure of a people's progress," says a wise axiomist, 
"may be found in the amount of paper this people consumes." 
History places the seal of truth on these words. Wrote a 
philosopher of long ago: — "The highest stage of civilization 
is reached where there is the most perfect union of usefulness 
and beauty." To no great attainment of to-day does the 
latter saying apply more forcibly than to our paper production, 
and into no national product have national characteristics 
more closely interwoven themselves than into the papers to- 
day's peoples produce. 




Peculiar 
Qualities of 
the Paper 
Produced 
in Different 
Lands 



There is the paper of Belgium — which nation long held pre- 
cedence as producing more paper, for its size, than any other 
country; light and well-appearing, but not too perfect in 
texture and endurance, as a rule. There is French paper, 
somewhat resembling Belgian, but usually lighter, highly glaz- 
ed, clear, and very dainty in combination of tint and design. 
There are the great mills of the Rhenish Provinces, whose 
papers while not wholly unlike those of France and Belgium, 
are firmer in texture, with one side generally much more 
highly finished than the other. There are English papers, 
and Scotch papers, made of stock selected with great care, 
more solid in appearance than the others, and harder to the 
touch. Notable among these are Pirie's papers, which until 
quite lately, held ascendency over them all, for intrinsic 
value, great range of quality, finish and color, and especial 
adaptability to fine engraving. Some peculiar excellence has 
marked the papers of each of these countries, but none has 
learned how to combine these several excellencies — and to 
make the most of each excellence — until our own Country 
emphasized its place in Art Industries by its creation of 
papers which are, indeed, works of the highest and most 
cultured art. 




The 

Love Letter 





Foremost in the production of Fine Correspondence papers in 
this country is the Whiting Paper Company whose name is now 
recognized the world over, as the synonym for what is most 
elegant in the paper maker's art. Neither the exquisitely 
tinted papers of France, nor the light, well-appearing papers 
of Belgium, nor those of England and Scotland in smoothness 
and firmness, nor of Germany in strength and variety, outrival 
these beautiful papers. No other country consumes such 
quantity oi paper as we consume; equally, since the great mills 
of the Whiting Company were put in full operation, no other 
country produces such quality as we produce. 



The 
"Whiting 
Company's 
Papers — 
Combining 
all these 
excellences 
and adding 
others, is 
the finest in 
the world 
to-day 



The best paper production rests on a triple basis, which is The Basis 
fully sustained here; the part of nature in the most perfect of Fine 
growth of the plants the production demands; the part of Paper Pro- 
scienceiox finding and maintaining an absolute equipoise be- '^"'^**°" 
tween finest material and most subtle tinting; the part of man 
in the invention and operation of machinery which shall give 
this equipoise the highest material development. The sym- 
metric union of "usefulness and beauty" the Whiting Papers 
represent, is an especially significant fact to us to day, when 
we recall the words of our axiomists, and when we remember 
how intimate is the touch of writing paper, medium as it is of 
direct communication between mind and mind, and people 
and people. 



No papers manufactured abroad to-day perfectly respond to 
the demands of Polite Society, as do the papers of the Whiting 
Company; exquisite to the touch, daintily beautiful in tint, 
restful to the eye, firm and rich in texture, durable in sub- 
stance, their use helps give rythm to the poem of thought, 
magnetism to desire, dignity and character to expression. It 
is another "as it should be" that these refined papers are 
rapidly displacing all foreign papers, whose importation (as 
commercial statistics prove) has astonishingly diminished 
since they were placed within Society's reach, and it is another 
evidence of what "is", that the production of the Whiting 
Company's fine papers, has more than doubled within the last 



Charac- 
teristic Ele- 
gance of 
the 

"Whiting 
Papers 



Epochs in 
Paper 



Why the 
Whiting 
Paper is 
Best 



half decade. To touch lightly again on the magnetic power 
of paper; how much more grateful is the remembrance of 
those who, at parting, send us such paper — Pour prendre cong^; 
and how much more cordially we heed the Repondez s'il vous 
plait, thus written, of those who are to be guided by our own 
thoughts or determination concerning some matter in hand? 

Now that elegant etiquette demands paper instead of cards 
for the majority of announcements and invitations as well as 
for communications, the existence right at hand, of such 
paper, adapted as it is to all uses and all occasions, is far more 
important than it ever was before. As our epochs become 
more marked, so, perhaps, our papers may grow to be named 
for them, as the French named their Grand Soleil and Fleur-de- 
Lis quite as appropriately as they named those insidiously 
flattering papers — A V Etotle and la Demoiselle. 

The Whiting Paper's right of title to be what it is universally 
acknowledged to be — "the best paper manufactured to-day," 
rests upon its texture, which is its aesthetic power — its quality, 
which is the discriminating factor of its composition — and its 
general adaptibility, or power of satisfying refined tastes on all 
occasions. High class paper dealers have said much of the 
extreme difficulty experienced in exactly matching some 
strong or peculiar shade, once the original stock is exhausted. 
It is a very rare and a very great art to produce paper always 
practically the same in tint, but it is an art the Whiting Paper 
Company has made its own. The tints of their papers are the 
best, the most costly, and the most scientifically gauged and 
conserved. Its linen is real linen ; and its cotton is the whitest 
and purest, even if necessary to bring it from across the 
ocean, to meet the Company's immense demands. Their paper 
is made under the most favorable conditions ; the greater part 
of it is plated, the rest is perfectly calendered. The sorting is 
so scrupulously done that every sheet of paper with even the 
minutest speck in it, is immedietely cast aside. This does not 
apply to cloudy effects, however; for some papers with cloudy 
effects when held to the light, are among the very best. 





General 
Adapt- 
ability 



An Ele- The social exactions of the day are so many and so onerous, 

gantly tur- that even our most cultured ladies are sometimes obliged to 

nished ^ , , . . i i i • , • • ■ , 

„ ,^ , refresh their memories when lookinp: to their escritoire be- 

Escritoire '^ 

longings and to provide for the perfect equipment they and 
society demand, by taking note that they must be supplied 
with a variety of latest tints and latest styles, small a.nd large for 
different occasions and different chirographics. Each paper 
must have its own box or compartment — such an arrangement 
being not only pleasant to the cultured eye, but an unmistak- 
able hall-mark of quality. If, however, this direct personal 
care be rendered difficult through lack of time, or lack of in- 
clination, a satisfied sense of relief rests in the knowledge that 
the Whiting Company is so infallibly in touch with all that con- 
cerns perfect paper — so absolutely au courant with fashion's 
* latest and subtlest demands and caprices, that it can be im- 

plicitly trusted both with the supply and with the labeling. 

For messages at home or far away — for happy summons or 
for business order — for home festival, or for state occasion 
— for fair maiden or for charming matron — the papers of the 
Whiting Company contain every grace and excellence. They 
are emphatically not oi the class which causes the tantalizing 
splutter of the pen, nor the blemishing spread of ink, spoiling 
the temper not only of the writer and of the receiver, but also 
of the letter written! 

Color and In Palestrina's time, color was used as a musical indication. 

Personality In many'sensitive minds the mention of a name calls up its 
color counterpart; inversely, the mention of certain colors 
suggests certain persons whose grace, refinement, erudition, 
modesty, genius, dignity, or strength, we know and feel as we 
know and feel the colors of the flowers and of the clouds. So, 
while we must yield the honorable place of standard adapta- 
bility and dignity that cannot err — to pure white and palest 
French gray, we shall always love and turn towards those 
delicate or rich'paper tints which grow to be inseparably as- 
sociated with the natures of our friends — just as we turn to 
and love the odor of the flowers, the note of the forest stream, 
the rhythmic whisper of the leaves, and the tints of the morn- 
ing and evening sky. 








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''<■'' i^' hi 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

018 530 486 3 ^^ 





THE NAME 



of the Whiting Paper Company and their trade 
mark are guarantees of excellence. The Whiting 
Papers for Fine Correspondence and for Wed- 
ding Invitations are unequalled. All first-class 
stationers keep them 





COME of the 
^ varieties of 


leaders among the hundreds of 


the Whiting Standard 


Papers 


are these : 






Whiting' 


s Westminster Vellum 






Woven Linen 






No. 1 Extra 






Grecian Bond 






Irish Linen 






French Organdie 






Wedding Papers 




Insist on being 


shown these papers 


at your 


stationer's. Use 


them once and you 


will use 


them always 









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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
018 530 486 3 % 



